A Tribute to Alexander McQueen

Alexander McQueen is my favourite fashion designer. It was a shock for me too then, to discover on the morning of February 11th that he had committed suicide. It is a loss not only for his family and friends, but also for the world - talent such as he had is rare to come by. Read more about his work in my other blog. As an hommage, I photographed Fashion Royalty's Kyori Sato in mourning with a dress that Integrity did for the 2007 Wu Event IV - it was one of the convention fashion outfits, called Lap Of Luxury. It copied blatantly one of my favourite Alexander McQueen dresses, as the theme of the convention was The Royal Life - Anglophilia ruled, so it was an obvious choice. R.I.P. Lee, we will miss you.

Black As Night Kyori Sato in mourning, wearing Lap of Luxury

Spring/Summer 2007 show - one of my very favourite dresses

Tonner 2010 collection unveiled!

The Tonner Doll Company, as they usually do every year, unveiled their 2010 collection during IDEX 2010. Lots of dolls, old and new, lots of directions to go for the company and collectors alike. I will not be posting all the dolls that are in the line as that would be space-and-time consuming. Instead I will focus on what I liked from the vast ofering plus some new lines. For more check out their website.

Cami

Jon

Cami & Jon is their brand new line and most awaited this year. It is about three basic 16" fashion dolls with the Antoinette body and many outfits - in other words, a new sculpt for Antoinette. I do not like the Cami face, it is too dolly-like and not very realistic. I think she looks like Tyler Wentworth. The outfits are contemporary fashion styled but nothing extraordinary. Although I must say that the quality of Tonner clothing always makes their contemporary fashions very desirable - and the Antoinette collectors will love the variety now offered.

Update: Jon is finally up on the site, the face sculpt is Jac, a very popular and loved face. It is always good to see more diversity in skin tones.

Alice

In their usual mode of operation - building up excitment and tension without an actual product to show - Tonner announced they will be officialy producing Lord Of The Rings dolls, starting with Aragon and Arwen. No photos yet, still pending approval of faces. If they are as late as the torchwood and Doctor Who dolls, they will have another bomb in their hands. Same goes for Tim Burton's Alice In Wonderland - but at least here they have an Alice to show. Supposedly a likeness of Mia Wasikowska, the doll looks ugly. At 16" with the geisha bust, she looks too adult to be Alice. Mad Hatter, Red and White Queen pending approval - I hope these turn out to be more interesting.

Cristal

DC Stars are more action figures than fashion dolls, so I will not show any here. But the fashion doll that shares their body, Deanna Denton, has a great looking doll in the collection: Peggy Harcourt Cristal. The gown is excellent and her face paint a bit more daring and sexy than the usual Tonner style. I would get this one if I could afford her. The rest of the collection is very predictable. They also offer one gown for the DC ladies (which DeAnna can wear too) which looks great: Onyx, from the Tonner wardrobe collection, which consists of outfits and accessories made for the action figure/doll series, making them look more casual and properly dressed - can't wear tights and capes all day long!

Onyx

Jessica Rabbit

The aformentioned gown can be shared by a new doll added to the Disney line of princesses Tonner is making: although she is no princess, Jessica Rabbit sure can steal the limelight from all of the blue-blodded belles. With the 17" athletic body and a cartoonish face, she does not thrill me a lot (why couldn't she look more like Cristal for example) but I am sure lots of collectors will want to add her to their collections. The two new princesses, Tiana and Cinderella are not approved by Disney yet.

Ava Gardner Black Magic dressed doll

Hollywood Glamour Fame and Fortune outfit

Joan Crawford Woman Of Passion

Gene Marshall "Unforgettable" by Ashton Drake

There is a new Ava Garnder dressed doll, as well as a new Bette Davis and Joan Crawford. I wonder how many dolls of the same actress can one collector have before stopping - one or two is more than enough for me. Maybe they should just keep releasing the Hollywood Glamour outfits for them and make new stars to release as dolls - how about Rita Hayworth, Marlene Dietrich etc. The outfit on the new Crawford doll reminds me of Gene Marshall Unforgettable by Ashton Drake.

Antoinette Wanton dressed doll

Antoinette Alabaster mannequin

Antoinette this year has become a bit stale outfit wise. The only interesting one is Wanton but they should have made it in colour, not black. The white skinned mannequin, Alabaster, intrigues me as she could help me finally realize a long dreamed of project for a doll.

Scarlett O'Hara "What my lamb gonna wear?"

Gone with the Wind from Tonner finally releases the famous green dress from the barbeque at 12 Oaks. And they do it in WHITE? Are they kidding? Is their designer colour blind or is it possible they could not find a proper fabric? This one has been done so many times by so many companies that one would think Tonner would get it right - epsecially considering their GWTW releases so far. But no, they go and majestically screw up one of the most iconic dresses in the history of film making. And she has no lace shawl either. Mammy would be furious! They are also doing the same doll in 22" size as well as the All Dressed Up Like Racehorses dress (the Honeymoon dress), which has been done much better by Franklin Mint.

Mei Li basic black doll

The basic Tonner fashion doll line, Tyler Wentworth, has only three dolls (so far at least) a basic Mei Li, a dressed Tyler and a dressed Sydney, both of whom are boring to say the least. But Mei Li is a much sought after sculpt and her re-release in basic form will make many collectors happy.

Backstage Invitation Reneé Devereaux dressed doll

The Re-imagination, Fashion Zombies and Sinister Circus lines are presented together. These dolls leave me fashionably numb. Horror and fashion never merged well. But there is one final doll that may be the best one in the line-up: One of the Deveraux Sisters, the flapper dolls that Tonner makes. Backstage Invitation has it all: the extravagant lush outfit (with velvet robe and silk slip) and the dreamy facepaint. No wonder it got a Coty award. I wish I could afford this one, she looks smashing.

Basic Barbie styled by CFDA Designers

Barbie, as most collectors know already, is no stranger to real-life designers making outfits for her. She celebrated her 50th Anniversary last year with a spectacular runway show at New York Fashion Week. Mattel recently introduced the Barbie Basics dolls, who come wearing little black dresses, have various skin colours and haistyles. Five acessory kits were also introduced to allow the owners to personalize their look. To celebrate the launch, 12 of the top CFDA designers have dressed some of these basic Barbies: Tory Burch, Isaac Mizrahi, Rachel Roy, Justin Giunta, Lorraine Schwartz, Alexis Bittar, Monica Botkier, Deborah Lloyd of Kate Spade, Philip Crangi, Albertus Swanepoel and Devi Kroell, all gave the perennial fashion doll some stylish garments, recycling their own iconic pieces.

Tory Burch

Kate Spade

Justin Giunta

Lorraine Schwartz

Isaak Mizrahi

Devi Kroell

Rachel Roy

Monica Botkier

Alberuts Swanepoel

Phillip Crangi

Each of the one-of-a-kind dolls will be auctioned off on Ebay. The proceeds will benefit the CFDA Foundation and the organization's scholarship and educational programs. The auction goes live on January 28th at 10pm EST and will run through February 7th. To bid visit Ebay.com.

All photos courtesy of Mattel Inc.

Tatiana's Doll House: The Dining Room

The very talented Tatiana has started making a series of rooms in 1/6 scale - all together they will make a big dollhouse. I will be presenting her work here in the blog - one room each month. We start with the dining room. Tatiana was inspired for the table by the dining room from Calvin Klein's Doll House by architect Josh Prince-Ramus (see previous post and photo below) . She liked the "dressy" posh impression conveyed by the dark brown and white colour scheme, and decided to use black & white for her dining room.

Calvin Klein Dollhouse - for photo credit check previous post

The idea to make the whole doll house in black and white with style and colour coordinated rooms came to her after making the dining table from wooden frames, which she purchased on clearance for her craft projects. They are solid wood shadowbox frames with high quality black finish. Her husband kindly cut them to desired height with a mitre saw. She then finally had enough modern looking furniture to make not only the dining room, but also the living room and bedroom. These furniture pieces with their rich feel of solid wood and almost jewellery-box quality finish are her favourites.

Tatiana had several dioramas in foamcore boxes before and after discovering that they don't hold their shape and warp under furniture weight, began looking for something more sturdy. She found oversized double corrugated cardboard in a local art store and decided to give it a try. She scored the sheet with a construction knife, then proceeded to fold and glue it into a box. The result was much better than she had hoped for. Using oversize coverstock for walls and floor added more durability and allowed her to avoid unsightly seams.

The columns are 13-3/4" wedding cake pillars, bought here. The white chairs came with Dynamite Girls convention chair packs. Tatiana purchased some of them on e-bay and some on doll boards. Plates are Gloria accessories that were repainted white. The cutlery, candelabras, wine bucket with bottle and "crystal" glasses are from Gloria play sets too. Vases are by Mattel, except for the clear one, which is a lipstick base.

She cut out placemats from acrylic screen on collectible Barbie box. The white table runner is a candy box ribbon. The Fashion Royalty liquor cabinet was a part of her office diorama, that was disassembled to make room for this one. Tatiana thought that it would look much better as a china cabinet and, after arranging some Re-ment plates and tea sets in it, she was happy with the result. And so are we.

Madison Avenue (Doll)House - Rex Architects for Calvin Klein

CLIENT Calvin Klein, Inc.
PROGRAM (Doll)House for the “Calvin Klein Woman,” displayed in the Calvin Klein Collection storefront on Madison Avenue during the 2008-2009 holiday season
AREA Dollhouse: 4.0 m² (43 sf); Concept House: 190 m² (2,000 sf)
WEIGHT 450 kg (1,000 lbs)
PROJECT COST Confidential
STATUS Completed November 2008
ARCHITECT REX
KEY PERSONNEL Jeffrey Franklin, Joshua Prince-Ramus, Jacob Reidel, Alejandro Schieda, Eugenia Zimmermann

CONSULTANTS Magnusson Klemencic, Situ Studio

Calvin Klein’s Senior Vice President for Creative Services approached REX to design a concept house showcasing pieces from the company’s apparel, accessory, and home lines. The catch: the house would be realized in miniature and displayed in the main window of Calvin Klein’s Madison Avenue store during the 2008-2009 holiday season. REX dubbed this fusion of concept house and doll house a “(Doll)House.

For a practice committed to using constraints as generative opportunities, the project was challengingly whimsical, presenting an exciting (and fun) opportunity to test the limits of our methodology across multiple scales.

A response to two markedly different scales and purposes, the (Doll)House had to reconcile—in one design—the contradictory constraints of a concept house and a doll house:

1. The concept house had to be designed for the “Calvin Klein Woman,” a professed city-dweller; the doll house typology is traditionally a suburban, detached, single-family dwelling.

2. The concept house had to provide privacy for its hypothetical inhabitant; a doll house has to be open, at eye-level, and easily viewed in the round.

3. The concept house had to respect the minimalist aesthetic of Calvin Klein; the doll house had to be bold enough to attract the attention of holiday shoppers.

4. The concept house required a hypothetical site in New York City; the doll house site was already fixed—a Madison Avenue storefront.

By siting the concept house in the ‘landscape’ above a Manhattan intersection, the competing demands of the two scales begins to reconcile. Suspended in air, the concept house remains a freestanding residence while capitalizing on underutilized urban space. Undeniably frivolous, the Madison Avenue (Doll)House nevertheless contains a kernel of an idea for accommodating growth in rapidly-densifying cities.

Meanwhile, elevated and freestanding within the storefront, the doll house can be seen closely in the round and from afar, and can be opened from all sides for play.

The conflicting constraints that remained unresolved by the selection of the concept house’s site are reconciled by the (Doll)House’s design itself. The design begins as four, minimalist floor plates (dining room, living room, bedroom, and rooftop pool terrace) following the precedent set for Calvin Klein by John Pawson, the store’s designer. The plates are then shifted to maximize visibility into the doll house, and to provide views out for the imagined occupant of the concept house.

To balance the opposing desires for views and privacy, the (Doll)House is wrapped in a cocoon of translucent white textile. Conceptually, this fabric layer operates as a sunshade, outboard of a glass façade.

The interiors and roof terrace are furnished with miniature replicas of pieces from the company’s apparel, accessory, and home lines. These items were designed by the company’s creative directors: Francisco Costa, Calvin Klein Collection for Women; Italo Zucchelli, Calvin Klein Collection for Men; Ulrich Grimm, Calvin Klein Shoes & Accessories; and, Amy Mellen, Calvin Klein Home.

Architect Joshua Prince-Ramus in front of the Madison Avenue (Doll)House

Images Credits: James Lattanzio; Luxigon; Situ Studio

(text from REX Architects)